Title: The Regret Thing
Published by: Marvel Comics
Writer: Sean McKeever
Artist: Takeshi Miyazawa
Colorist: Christina Strain
Publisher: Dan Buckley
I feel that I have lied to you. When you clicked on this Mary Jane review, you chose it because of one of the following things:
A) You like Mary Jane or it’s team
B) You like my reviews
C) You enjoy clicking randomly
Well, if it’s A or C, then you are coming in this with no preconceived notions of the kind of reviews I do. If you are coming in because of B, then you are the one I have lied to. Specifically because this review shall not be done by the loving, calloused writing hands of me, James Hatton. It is instead, by the demands of the drooling fangirl herself, be done by my life partner in crime – the beautiful – the talented – the graduated (which means I can stop paying for her sorry ass) Danielle O’Brien…
Dani, take it away —–
Thanks hun. Drooling fangirl though?! I might say, over excited fangirl, ecstatic fangirl, maybe even rabid squeeling fangirl for this title, but not drooling fangirl. That’s not a very nice way to introduce your lovely and talented fiancé who cooks you dinner every night. Enough about me though, we are here to talk about my favorite number one guilty pleasure book, Mary Jane.
I’m pretty sure if you looked up the words guilty pleasure you would see a picture of chocolate, the DVD boxset for Gilmore Girls and Mary Jane. Now, I’m not using guilty pleasure in a negative way at all, I just find that most guys who read comic books have a hard time accepting the fact that they do enjoy Mary Jane, and that it’s ok to like it. I’m here to explain to you why it is Ok to read and love this book and that you aren’t a wuss for enjoying it.
Now, I admit I am a squeeling fangirl for this book. When I grab it out of the Diamond box on Wednesday mornings I start squeeling like a little girl who just got a pony. I was never lucky enough to own a pony, but I’m pretty sure the decibels I reach with my squeeling are very similar.
Sean McKeever showed us in the Waiting Place that he knew how to write about high school. He showed us in Sentinel that he knows how to write about a young boy and his robot. In Mary Jane he shows us he knows how to write about a young girl in high school. He knows how to write about the female so well, it makes me wonder if he wasn’t one in a past life. Or if Sean isn’t just a pen name for Jennifer.
McKeever has crafted the perfect tale of the high school teenagers life. She has boy problems, best friend problems, and a crush on a real life superhero. Ok, so maybe the last one isn’t like our take on high school, but don’t you think high school would have been so much more fun if Spider-Man and the Vulture were fighting during the big football game.
In the last issue of Mary Jane, we saw the reunion of Mary Jane and Liz, best friends forever. It seems that Liz thought Mary Jane was trying to squeeze in on Liz’s man Flash. Now that’s ridiculous, because we all know that Mary Jane is the cute sweet innocent girl with the heart of gold.
This issue opens up with our girl Mary Jane getting her dress for the big Homecoming dance. It seems that she’s got a hot date with her boyfriend Harry Osborn. In the middle of her leaving the mall, the Vulture comes flying through and Spider-Man after him, but not before our boy Spidey makes a little stop to say “hi!” to our girl MJ and compliment her on her dress. This gets her blood boiling a little bit and makes her think about her old crush on the Spidey.
We jump to Liz’s where the girls are getting ready for the big game. MJ tells Liz of her Spidey encounter and Liz very pointedly tells MJ that she better stop that right now. You see, Liz wants to experience the perfect night. It is Homecoming you know and her and Flash are going to be King and Queen and MJ and Harry are going to be the perfect couple for this perfect night. It seems our Liz is just a little bit on the controlling side of needing everything to be perfect. Well, we all know that when it comes to high school, there is no such thing as the perfect night.
The big game takes place, Flash is the perfect quarterback, Liz cheers him on with her pom poms and MJ and Harry sit in the stand cheering them on. Spidey makes an appearance and almost ruins the game, saves the day by capturing the villain, but no one in high school cares about that. There is a big Homecoming dance to get ready for and the girls have got to look their best.
The dance goes like any other high school dance. People dance, fun is had, and Flash tries to reveal his true feelings again for a certain young lady. Then the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Homecoming King and Queen. Dear readers will have to read the book, because I’m not going to ruin the big reveal for you. Just think crazy high school hijinks, but not the kind in Carrie.
Now, onto the art. I heart Taka art work. It’s a perfect example of east meeting west artwork. It has an obvious manga influence, but it still is holding true to American sensibilities. No one has huge eyes or big hair. Taka is capturing the essence of the manga style and translating it for the American audience. It’s the best of both worlds, and it can be enjoyed by both fans of American books and the ever popular manga audience.
That being said, I’ve been just a tad disappointed by the artwork in this series of books. I loved the art team of Taka and Norman Lee on the first Mary Jane series. They synched perfectly. Taka with his line quality and Norman with his inking style. This second series has been plagued with bad inkers. This issue, it seems that Taka inks himself. I just don’t think it was a very good idea. There is no smoothness in the lines. Each look sloppy as if he’s never heard of a french curve. The ink looks to have almost bled on the board, creating this fuzzy quality to each inked line. There is absolutely no smoothness to anything. It almost looks as if the inked pages where scanned in at a very low resolution, creating a pixalized look when it was printed out. (see what you learn when you graduate with a graphic design degree.)
The coloring also seems to be a bit off to me. A few too many filter tricks in Photoshop. The coloring should compliment the piece, not stand out to the viewer. I found the sparkly on Mary Jane’s dress to be a little too distracting and the half-tone dot pattern in the background of some of the pages didn’t seem to make much sense at all.
I still love this book. Sean McKeever has taken the simple concept of Mary Jane in high school and turned it into one of the best high school books I have ever read. I actually think this is one of the better books being put out today. If you are trying to get a young girl or female friend of yours into comics, try this book out. It combines the high school realism, with the fantasy world of comic books. It’s a great way to get them eased into the world of superheroes.
